When cooking, people like to use spices which can emanate certain flavors to change the flavors of food. However, spices in their original state are usually in large volume, or leafy, or in large granular structures or other irregular shapes. Spices are usually ground into powder or small grains to be used instead of being added with their original structures. This is because spices in powder or small granular can emanate richer flavors with fewer amounts compared with those in their original structures. At the same time, these powdery or small granular spices can be dissolved in foods uniformly after being added, thus preventing strong tastes caused by spices in their original structures for those who eat these foods. Therefore, ground spices are preferred by people.
Generally, there are two spice grinding methods, industrial grinding and home grinding. Industrial grinding refers to grinding a spice into an ideal state with machines, and then the spice is packed and sold. Since powdery and small granular spices are easy to lose their flavor, the ground spices have a certain shelf life which is much shorter than the shelf lives of those in their original structures. Home grinding refers to grinding spices with some relatively small convenient handheld small-size grinders. The amount of each grinding is basically the use amount required for each cooking. Flavors provided by freshly-ground spices are more natural, original and purer. As people are requiring higher and higher quality of life, home grinders become more and more popular.
Existing grinders usually comprise a container portion for containing raw spices and a grinding head assembly interconnected with the container portion and for grinding the spices. The grinding head assembly comprises an auxiliary grinding head with a through hole and a main grinding head configured in the through hole. Grinding teeth are configured on the opposite peripheral walls of the main grinding head and the auxiliary grinding head and there is a certain distance there between to form a grinding cavity of the spices. Since the grinding cavity is relatively narrow, generally, existing home grinders can only be used for grinding zanthoxylum and coarse salt grains etc. with relatively small original structures. Spices that can be ground need to be able to slide/drop from the container portion into the grinding cavity by their own weight. Some spices with relatively light weight and/or relatively large original volume, such as chilies, bay leaves and star anise etc., cannot be ground.